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Mercury
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Let's look at our food chain to see how biomagnification works. Let's say for example that each piece of plant material has one microscopic drop of methylmercury. One insect eats 25 pieces of plant material, that would mean that each insect would have __________ microscopic drops of methylmercury in its body. One small fish needs 10 insects to live, if each insect has 25 microscopic drops of methylmercury in its body, then one fish would have __________ microscopic drops of methylmercury. |
One big fish eats 5 small fish to live. Each small fish has __________ microscopic drops of methylmercury in its body, therefore, one big fish would collect a total of __________ microscopic drops of methylmercury in its body.
What about you and me? Lets say we eat 1 big fish a day for 3 days. If each big fish has __________ drops of methylmercury in its body then we would collect a total of __________ drops of methylmercury in our body over the 3 days. This is how biomagnification works!
Now let's say that methylmercury makes living things sick. The more methylmercury in the living organism, the more sick it would get. From our example above, which organism will be most affected by the toxin methylmercury? __________
| Return to the Lessons Chart to choose a new lesson or go to the Math Activities: |
| Biomagnification & Mercury | Biomagnification Math | Mystery of Methylmercury | Methylmercury Activity |
| part of Environment Canada's Green LaneTM | |
| Webmaster Last Updated: 2002-11-15 Last Reviewed: 2002-11-15 |
Important Notices and Disclaimers URL: http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/community/classroom/millenn ium/m3-science-assign2-e.html |
Biomagnification Math